Property prices are too high in Penang

A friendly reminder. There are potential for a price fall for high end condos. For example, those which are over RM1 million and above. Demand may not be enough to support the oversupply. However, for those who are waiting for the RM500,000 condos to fall back to their original level of RM300,000, I personally feel the chances for this happening is close to zero. Nothing is impossible but your wait may be futile if you intend to wait for this to happen.

Statistically speaking, a recently graduated engineer in Singapore earns SG$2,600, typically. In Malaysia, if you are in Penang and entering a multinational company, you earn around RM2,600. In Singapore, referring to Singapore’s dominant property site, www.propertyguru.com.sg, the cheapest HDB flat advertised is around SG$300,000. Besides HDB flats, there are little other choice. Actually, if you are just a fresh graduate you also wont qualify to even put in your name for the balloting for new HDB flats.

In Penang, based on www.propertyguru.com.my, a typical apartment of 700sf is RM250K or lesser and there are plenty of choices everywhere on the island. Why are people still shouting that prices are way too high and that it’s not affordable? Wait a minute, Malaysian graduates only want to stay in condominiums and not apartments or flats. Those are what they call as prices too high! I do not even want to mention the apartment or condo prices in Singapore.

My personal advice. Work hard, get married and then upgrade to condos. After working for 5 years, my wife and I managed to buy an apartment in Relau for RM123K. We bought what we could afford then. We stayed there happily for 5 years before upgrading to a condo in Sungai Ara. Tell me, any reason why graduates nowadays MUST stay in the ‘prices too high condominium’ in Penang? Property prices cannot yet be considered too high in Penang. Not yet anyway.